Huang, Chun-Jung

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the impact of acute highintensity
interval Exercise (HIIE) on plasma cfDNA and IL-6 responses in obese and
normal-weight subjects. Fifteen subjects (8 obese and 7 normal-weight) were recruited to
participate in an acute HIIE protocol. Our results demonstrated a significant elevation
across time in plasma cfDNA and IL-6 immediately following acute HIIE, with no
difference between obese and normal-weight subjects. Furthermore, cfDNA was not
correlated with IL-6 in response to acute HIIE in either group. These findings indicate
that the obese state does not further exacerbate the release of acute HIIE-induced
inflammatory mediators (cfDNA and IL-6), which suggests that HIIE training may serve
as a time-effective exercise strategy to improve obesity-associated inflammation.

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of acute high-intensity interval exercise (HIIE) vs. continuous moderate-intensity exercise (CME) on serum CTRP9 and brachial FMD responses in obese and normal-weight subjects. Sixteen participants (9 obese and 7 normal-weight) completed HIIE and CME in a randomized fashion. Our results showed a significant time effect for CTRP9 immediately following acute HIIE and CME in both groups. Furthermore, both significant treatment by time and group by time interactions for FMD were observed following both exercise protocols, with greater CME-induced FMD response in obese subjects than normal-weight subjects. Additionally, a positive correlation in percent change (baseline to peak) between CTRP9 and FMD was observed following acute CME. These findings support acute CME for improvement of endothelial function in obesity. Furthermore, the novel results from this study provide a foundation for additional examination of the mechanisms of exercise-mediated CTRP9 on endothelial function.

The secular issue of obesity has been linked to increased inflammatory mediators, such as calprotectin (S100A8/A9). This study examined the effect of acute aerobic exercise on plasma calprotectin response in obese and normal-weight subjects and its relationship with inflammatory cytokine (IL-6). All subjects (11 obese and 10 normal-weight) performed 30 minutes of treadmill exercise at 75% maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max). Blood samples were collected prior to, immediately following exercise, and one hour after exercise. Our results showed higher baseline levels of calprotectin in obese subjects than normal-weight subjects. While acute aerobic exercise increased an elevation in calprotectin and IL-6, no difference was found between two groups. Furthermore, a positive relationship was observed between calprotectin area-under-the curve “with respect to increase” (AUCi) and IL-6 AUCi, even after controlling for cardiorespiratory fitness (VO2max). Our results support previous finding that IL-6 may potentially regulate calprotectin expression in skeletal muscle during exercise.

Obesity is associated with elevated levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokines
interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), contributing to systemic
insulin resistance. Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is a vital metabolic and
inflammatory regulator, however circulating FGF21 concentrations are elevated in obese
individuals. Acute aerobic exercise increases systemic FGF21 in normal-weight
individuals, however the effect of acute aerobic exercise on plasma FGF21 response and
the relationships with inflammation (IL-6 and TNF-α), insulin resistance, and energy
expenditure in obese individuals is unknown. Following 30 minutes of treadmill running
at 75% VO2max, plasma FGF21 response, as indicated by area-under-the-curve “with
respect to increase” (AUCi) analyses, was attenuated in 12 obese compared to 12 normalweight
subjects. Additionally, FGF21 AUCi positively correlated with glucose AUCi,
total relative energy expenditure, and relative VO2max, suggesting that cardiorespiratory fitness levels may predict FGF21 response, contributing to the enhanced regulation of
glucose and energy metabolism.

Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) has been demonstrated as a vital biomarker for chronic inflammatory diseases. Decreased plasma PTX3 has been observed in obese populations. However, no studies have examined the impact of obesity on PTX3 reactivity to exercise. Therefore, our study sought to investigate PTX3 plasma response to maximal exercise in obese and normal-weight subjects, and its relationship with insulin sensitivity. Twenty-one subjects (9 obese and 12 normal-weight) were recruited. Plasma PTX3, insulin, and glucose levels were measured before and following exercise. While our results showed lower resting PTX3 levels in obese subjects, exercise elicited similar elevations in PTX3 and insulin sensitivity in both groups. Furthermore, PTX3 area-under-curve (AUC) was correlated with glucose AUC, even when controlled for body mass index and fitness level. These findings suggest that glucose may potentially regulate PTX3 response to exercise. Further investigation is needed to verify the impact of substrate utilization on exercise-induced PTX3 elevation.

This thesis describes QoS routing techniques in ad hoc networks. QoS routing is to find paths between given source and destinations that fulfill a set of QoS requirements. QoS routing in ad hoc networks is a challenging problem due to the dynamical nature of ad hoc networks and the complexity of the QoS routing problem. Ticket-based probing scheme (TBP) is a creative approach to solve QoS routing problem, however, its proactive nature makes it deficient and unscalable. In this thesis, we first present the adaptive ticket-based routing protocol (ATBR), a proactive protocol enhanced from TBP, by introducing a new imprecise QoS state model. We then present the location-aided, ticket-based routing protocol (LTBR), an integration of locate-based routing and ticket-based routing, where tickets are dynamically generated and guided by location and QoS metric. Our simulations show that, in networks under any density, LTBR achieves close performances to flooding with considerably lower routing overhead.